Laura Jo Phillips (37 page)

“I kind of like it,” Aisling said.  She stepped up to the long viewing window and looked into the room.  It was much bigger than she’d expected, with white padding along the walls and floor.  She looked up.  Ceiling too.  She knew that the padding was meant to protect the ship, not the Clan Jasani in the room, but she was glad it was there.  Just in case.

“I love your binding marks,” Karma said.  “They’re very beautiful.”

“I love them too,” Aisling said, looking down at her arms.  Olaf had shown her how to make them fade, but she preferred to leave them showing.  She liked looking at them too much.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Karma asked, watching Rudy open the door into the padded room and step into it.  “It’s only been one day.”

“I’m sure, Karma,” Aisling said.  Karma worried a lot, but Aisling wasn’t going to get testy with her about it.  Having someone worry about you wasn’t a bad thing.

“Just make sure you don’t let anyone else in here,” she added.  “I don’t mind you watching me make a fool of myself, but I don’t want any other spectators.”

“Too bad,” Karma said.  “I was gonna sell tickets.”

“The problem with money is, no matter how much you have, you can’t take it with you when you die,” Aisling said brightly.

Karma scowled.  “Spoil sport.”

Aisling leaned over to kiss Karma on the cheek.  “Thank you for helping out last night,” she said.  “I really appreciate it.”

“What’re friends for?” Karma replied.  “I’m very happy for you.  You do know that, right?”

“Yes, I know that.”

The door opened behind them and Olaf entered, locking the door behind him.  “Sorry I’m late,” he said.  “The Captain wanted to tell me that we got an unexpected jump slot last night.  We’ll reach Rathira tomorrow morning.”

“That’s great news,” Aisling said.  She’d been worried they would miss Urwin.  For some reason, she felt that if they didn’t get there tomorrow, it would be too late.

“Let’s go learn to fly,” Rand said, standing at the door into the room.

Aisling cast one nervous glance at Karma, straightened her shoulders and went through the door into the roar room.  Her feet sank into the thick padding on the floor, making it difficult for her to walk to where Rudy stood waiting several yards away.  The room was even bigger than it had looked from the viewing window, which made her feel even more nervous.

“Relax,
tia-flam
,” Rudy said when she finally reached him.  “This will be easy for you.”

“Okay, what do I do?” she asked as Olaf and Rand joined them.

“Imagine your gryphon in your mind, and call her,” Olaf said.

“Call her?” Aisling asked, perplexed.  “You make it sound like she’s a different...being from me.”

“In a sense, she is,” Olaf said.  “She is you as a gryphon.  Not you in the form of a gryphon.”

“That makes no sense,” Aisling said flatly.  “None.  Are you messing with me?”

“No,” Olaf said, hiding his smile.  “I am not messing with you, and it does make sense.”

Aisling crossed her arms in front of her and looked at Rudy, then Rand.  They both wore smiles, though Olaf had at least tried to hide his. 

“You’re gonna have to add another couch to that sitting room,” she said.

“Why?” Olaf asked.

“So all three of you will have a place to sleep tonight.”

“Oh.”  Olaf cleared his throat and decided he should start over.

“Imagine that you have two options,” he said.  “One of them is to put on a costume that will make you look like a gryphon.  It has the right color fur, the right shape and size, but it’s a costume.  When you put it on you look like a gryphon, but you aren’t a gryphon.  You’re a person in a costume.  Understand?”

“Yes,” Aisling said, starting to see where he was going.

“Good,” Olaf said.  “Now, the other option is to
become
a gryphon.  Inside, outside, in every way, you become a gryphon.  You have the gryphon’s instincts, the gryphon’s body which has four legs, a tail, a beak, and wings.  It isn’t like your human body.  There are no lips, no arms, no fingers.  It cannot talk, or push buttons on a hand terminal, or call someone on a vox.  But since you
are
the gryphon, you don’t care about any of that, because you aren’t human, you’re gryphon.  You don’t have to think how to walk, or fly, or decipher the way your eyes see and your ears hear, which are different from the way a human sees and hears.”

“So, in a way, there are two of me now,” Aisling said thoughtfully.  “The human me that looks like this, and another me that is a gryphon.”

“That’s right,” Olaf said with some relief.

“Am I still me though?” she asked.  “When I’m a gryphon, I mean.  Can I still think?”

“Yes, your personality remains the same, though it is enhanced by the gryphon’s instincts.  A gryphon is less patient than a human, and is far more apt to kill it’s enemies than capture them.  We are able to communicate with each other telepathically while in our alter-form, so we will be able to assist you if necessary.”

“All right, first things first,” Aisling said.  “Picture my gryphon, then call her.”

“Yes,” Rand said, holding his arm out so she could see herself.  She smiled at the odd looking gryphon with the dark red fur on it’s neck, tail and ankles.  For some reason she had thought she’d have green fur like the guys, but she didn’t.  She looked like herself.  Her eyes widened with that thought, and she understood a little more how this worked. 

She closed her eyes, pictured herself as a gryphon, and then called to her.  She remained motionless, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did.  She opened her eyes and looked down at Olaf, Rand and Rudy.  Down?

She blinked, then turned her head to look back at herself, surprised when her head turned almost all the way around.  She opened her beak and made a strange half roar, half squawking sound.

“What was that supposed to be?”
Olaf asked, his laughter sounding in her mind.

“A laugh,”
she replied, turning to see Olaf’s gryphon standing beside her.  He was taller than she was by at least a couple of feet, but she didn’t mind.  Eight feet at the shoulder was plenty big enough.  And she had a tail!  She twitched it experimentally and laughed again.

“Gryphons don’t laugh,” Rudy said.

“Now he tells me,”
Aisling thought back.

“Do you want to fly now?”
Olaf asked.

“Yes,”
Aisling replied eagerly.  She started to ask how, then realized that her gryphon already knew.  She crouched down a little on her rear leonine haunches, then sprang forward and up, her wings unfolding with a sharp crack, her neck stretched out, the air whistling past her beak as she sped toward the wall.  She banked left, twisting her body as her wings tilted at an angle, and in a blink she was speeding toward the other side of the room, laughing in her mind as she listened to Rand, Rudy and Olaf’s praises.

“Bilara
,
do we still need to have another couch added to the sitting room?”

“Not just yet, no,”
Aisling replied as she banked again, feeling as though she had been born to do this.  She could hardly wait for the chance to fly outside.

Chapter
33

Karma walked beside Aisling after they left the terra-pod, stunned by the beauty of the land around them.  They’d been instructed to land in an area that was some distance from the main city of
Ausar
so that their ships did not frighten the people.  This was a world which had several levels of knowledge, and the common people were unaware of the Thousand Worlds, or even the concept of travel among the stars.

There were no paved roads here, nor any powered vehicles such as ground-cars or speeders.  In an effort to remain as inconspicuous as possible, Captain Singer had asked that they leave the ground-car in the hold of the terra-pod, and send the terra-pod back to their ship rather than remain in wait as they normally would have. 

“That outfit is killer,” Karma said as they waited for the Gryphons to finish speaking with the pilot. 

Aisling grinned as she glanced down at herself.  The top was cut in the shape of a bustier with lacing up the back, and gold buckles at the shoulder straps.  Her pants and boots were the same design she usually wore, but matched the olive green of the bustier top, with gold buckles instead of silver.  It was all made of the usual kevlex and leather, and the pants had the utilitarian pockets and loops that she needed for her weapons.  The difference was that this top bared a tantalizing section of her flat, muscled stomach when she moved, and a daring bit of cleavage.  Karma had helped her design it, and though she’d been a little nervous about it at first, the Gryphons’ reactions when they’d seen it had swept her doubts away.

“It is,” Aisling agreed.  “Thank you so much for designing it, and insisting I add it to my order with the tele-fabricators.  I’m planning to order it in a few more colors.”

“Excellent idea,” Karma said with a smile.  “Those Gryphons of yours clean up hot too.”

Aisling’s grin widened further as she turned to watch her men leave the terra-pod and walk toward her.  They were all wearing tight black leather pants and black tank tops with black leather boots.  They also wore wide silver guards on their wrists, each one etched with a rampant gryphon, and black leather scabbards on their backs. 

Aisling had been impressed by how closely her men’s choice of weapons matched their personalities.  Olaf carried a two handed great sword that was longer than she was tall and, she suspected, weighed more than she did.  Rand carried a slender, curved, razor sharp saber with a solid silver gryphon on the hilt.  And Rudy carried a heavy curved war sword that looked nothing less than wicked.

After the terra-pod lifted off, they walked across a mile of white sand to a broad green river that snaked through the desert landscape as far as they could see.  They were relieved to find Captain Singer, a tall, angular human woman of perhaps fifty years, waiting for them on the beach.  There was a man with her who was several inches shorter, and perhaps a few years older than the Captain.  They both smiled as Aisling, Karma and the Gryphons approached.

“Greetings, Captain Singer,” Olaf said with a polite bow.  “I am Olaf Gryphon.  This is our Arima, Aisling Gryphon, her companion, Karma Baraka, and my brothers, Rudolf and Randolf.”

“Greetings,” Captain Singer said, returning Olaf’s bow.  “It is a pleasure to meet all of you.  This is Torl, my Executive Officer and Customs Specialist,” she said, gesturing toward the man beside her who bowed politely.

“We thank you for agreeing to assist us in this matter, and for coming so far out of your way to be here,” Olaf said.

“It is my pleasure to do so,” Captain Singer replied.  “It is difficult enough for us to gain the trust of indigenous peoples of Class D worlds such as this one.  Without trust, we cannot help them.  When criminals such as this man you are looking for use these worlds for their own gain, and play on the naïveté of the local populations, it makes our work more difficult.

“By the way, we have detected the power signature of a yacht that has landed approximately two hundred miles south-east of her, across the open desert and just outside the border of this Kingdom.”

“If at all possible we will capture this man and return him to the appropriate authorities,” Olaf promised.

“Very good,” Captain Singer said.  “Before we begin, I have brought a few extra linguistic interface modules with me.  King Rhobar and some of his family have learned Standard, but for the most part, the people of this world use their own languages.”

“We thank you,” Olaf said with another short bow.  “Unfortunately, those devices do not work on Clan Jasani.”

“Well, I’d love one,” Karma said.  “How do they work?”

Captain Singer handed Karma a tiny device.  “Place into your ear and it will filter language in such as a way that you will hear it in your own language.  After a time, the module teaches your brain the language so that you no longer need the device.”

“How long does it take?” Karma asked as she placed the device in her ear.

“Each individual differs,” Captain Singer replied.  “In general, four to six weeks.”  Captain Singer offered another device to Aisling, who shook her head.

“No, but thank you,” she said politely.  “I have a...talent...for languages.”

Captain Singer nodded and returned the device to a pouch at her belt without comment.  “Let us get started,” she said. 

She turned around and stepped onto a short wooden dock where a single boat sat waiting.   Torl followed her, and a moment later they were both on the boat.  Olaf nodded to Rand who went next, checking to be certain that the dock and the boat were safe for Aisling and Karma.  After he boarded the boat and looked around carefully, he signaled Olaf.

“Go ahead, Aisling,” Olaf said, urging her forward.  Aisling followed after Rand, Karma right behind her, then Olaf and finally, Rudy. 

The boat was quite large, but very primitive to their eyes.  The deck was a large flat rectangular area with a dozen wide sunshades propped up on long slender poles providing shade from the bright sun.  The deck was made from some type of wood that was either very golden in color, or had been stained to look appear golden.  There were thick cushions arranged beneath the sunshades, making it obvious that this was where they were supposed to sit.